#19) The Hatred of God

God has many attributes. He is loving. He is kind. He is good. He is righteous. He is strong. He is almighty. He is everlasting. The attributes of God are eternal aspects of Him that do not sway to one side or the other based on external circumstances. Many people take these attributes and forget another aspect of God.

Ask congregation who has heard of the love of God.

While God has His unswaying attributes, He also has His traits. The trait we are going to focus on tonight is the hatred of God.

Ask congregation who has heard of the hatred of God.

Hatred is not an attribute of God. As we discussed, an attribute is something that does not vary depending on an external force. God is all loving but He is not all hating. However, just because He is not all hating does not mean He cannot hate. God’s hatred is but one of His many traits. His hatred is not all defining but is rather in response to the existence of sin. If sin were to not exist, God’s love would remain but His hatred would not. As I said, we are going to discuss His hatred. We are specifically going to cover the topic of God’s hatred toward not just sin but toward the actual sinner.

We have all heard the saying, “God loves the sinner but hates the sin.” While it sounds nice and tickles the ears, have we ever really thought to stop and question this age old Sunday School teaching? I am here to say confidently that God does hate sin but he also does hate the sinner. God does not hate the sinner just for the sake of hating him. He hates the sinner because of the sin found in him. I know many of you are probably scratching your head and saying that is unbiblical but look at the following verses:

Proverbs 6:16-19
There are six things which the LORD hates,
Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him:
Haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
And hands that shed innocent blood,
heart that devises wicked plans,
Feet that run rapidly to evil,
A false witness who utters lies,
And one who spreads strife among brothers.

Psalm 5:5
The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes;
You hate all who do iniquity.

Psalm 11:5
The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked,
And the one who loves violence His soul hates.

Romans 9:13
Just as it is written, "JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED."

God does indeed hate sinners. Those verses listed above are not about God hating the sin in the world. They are clearly talking about sinners. We were all sinners at one point. We were all lost. We were all spiritually dead and separated from God.

Romans 3:23
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Thankfully, God loved us enough to send His son to die on the cross so that we could be reconciled to Him.

Romans 5:6-10
For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

People often use this passage (in conjunction with John 3:16) to say God loves everybody in the world. This simply is not the case. If it were, the verses I read above would be lying to us. God cannot love everybody and hate people at the same time. It is not possible. Paul was speaking to believers in the book of Romans.

Romans 1:6-7
among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

We cannot apply these words to the world because Paul specifically states they are for believers in Christ. What can we draw from Romans 5:6-10?

1) Christ died for the ungodly
2) while we were yet sinners Christ died for us
3) we shall be saved from the wrath of God

John 3:16a
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son

This is a very true statement. God loved the world. We were once in the world. He loved us in the world enough to offer a way to bring us back to Him. That way was through His Son. Christ did not die for everybody in the world. He died for us while we were still in the world. He died so that we may be able to come out of the world, die to ourselves, and become a new creature in Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

At this point, we are saved from the wrath of God. I do not believe God hated us while we were still sinners. Romans 5:8 tells us that God loved us while we were still sinners. If God hates all sinners, how is this possible? It is because God does not hate all sinners. He hates those whom He has not called to Himself. It is the ones that God has no intention of calling that He hates. Yes, He hates them. Read the first 3 verses I gave if you still do not believe God hates anyone. Again, God does not hate all sinners (because He loved us while we were still sinners) but He does very much so hate the rest of the sinners of this world. As I said in the beginning, this is not because of who the person is but because of the sin found within him.

How can I possibly back this up? I find Romans 9 helps to clear it up and put things in a proper perspective.

Romans 9:18-24
So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?" On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.

I do not believe the love of God is relevant to all. We are merely clay. God is the potter. Before the foundation of the world, He chose some to be vessels fitted unto honor. He chose others to be vessels fitted unto dishonor. God has His purpose. God has His Will. God has His plans. Who are we to question how He has made us or what He has made us into? Who are we to question God if He chooses to harden our heart?

Psalm 14:2-3
The LORD has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.

Nobody seeks after God with their own heart. It is only the elect that God ordained before the foundation of the world that He loves. Yes, they are sinners but they are sinners that fall under God's love. It is at this time only that the love of God even comes into play. Before this point, we were all merely clay.

There are some out there who take random verses to try to disprove the existence of the hatred of God toward anybody. They try to say that God loves all unconditionally and that His hatred does not exist. They take single verses to go as far as to claim that none will go to Hell and that all will be saved. We touched on this a few weeks ago in a previous lesson. They take verses such as 2 Peter 3:9.

2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

That verse does not say anything about the call of God nor does it speak of all of humanity. It speaks of the Purpose of God.

The word used for the “wishing” is ‎boulomai
The word most often used for the Call of God is kaleo

Boulomai is most often used when referring to the purposeful Will of God (Lk 22:42).

Luke 22:42
saying, "Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done."

It is not used to speak of general wants, desires or wishes. It is used to speak of decrees with purpose! Even more, we must look at the verse and not just focus on the one word.

2 Peter 1:1
Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:

Peter wrote this letter to the Church. What do we see in the verse shown above? I'll show it again:

2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

This verse is directed toward believers. It is encouragement for believers everywhere. It is reaffirming God's love toward us, the Elect, whom He chose before the foundation of the world just as a potter forms clay. None of the Elect from Romans 9 will perish as we covered a few weeks back in our series on Calvinism.

Since we know the word boulomai is used to refer to God's purposeful Will, we can safely believe it is not saying God purposefully Wills that all will be saved and none go to Hell. Since the Greek here does not refer to the Call of God, we can safely believe it is not saying “all men are called but only certain ones are saved” as is a common belief of today. It says God purposefully Wills that none will perish. How can this be if we know people will in fact perish? It is because Peter was not speaking of the entire world. He was speaking of and to believers. No believer will perish so be encouraged and have faith in the Truth. Peter is reassuring us, as believers, that God will not let us perish. We will not have to face His wrath.

Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

God demonstrated His love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We were still in the world when Christ died. We were lost. God demonstrated His love toward us and none of us, who are called by God, will perish. It is not speaking of the entire world. It is referring to us while we were still in the world as sinners.

While we are on the subject, let’s break down 1 Peter 3:18:

1 Peter 3:18
For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;

Just as the "us" in 2 Peter 3:8 refers to believers, it points to the same crowd in 1 Peter 3:18. The death of Christ was not in vain. It was to reconcile the elect of God. Christ died for the sins of us once and for all and we will not face his wrath or perish.

God does not hate all sinners. God does not hate those whom are His elect. God hates those that will be going to Hell. He does not hate sinners that will be called to Him. While we were yet sinners God demonstrated His love toward us. On the same token, those whom He has not elected, God does indeed hate and has promised to destroy with His wrath.

Let’s review what we have covered up until now:

1) The Bible gives specific details on the fact that God does indeed hate sinners.
2) The Bible says God has purposefully willed (not called) that none should perish. We know many will perish so we must either count the Bible as contradicting or we must seek to find the context. In this case, the context is believers.
3) Bible says God loved believers while we were yet sinners. It is still very clear that God hates any sinner whom He has not called.

Romans 9 says not all are called.

All have sinned. Yes, believers are inclusive in Romans 3:23. Even if you wanted to say Romans 3:23 must follow the same “us/we” rules and claim it is only referring to believers, we know unbelievers sin. This is why they are going to be judged by the wrath of God. Again, all of Scripture must be taken into account. The implication of "us" is indeed written in many verses while being directed toward believers only.

Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you (remember, it was written to believers), not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

1 Peter 3:18
For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;

Now the question remains as to why Christ died for all sins if some people are not going to be covered. I don't believe he did die for all sins. I believe he died for all the sins of the ones that God has called or will call at some point in the future. This is the Limited Atonement that I recently taught on in the series on Calvinism. As to whom those people are, we have no idea. We are to preach Christ crucified. We are to be a bondservant to God. He tells us to do it and we gladly accept the task on unconditional terms. A bondservant is in a state of constant servitude but it is not out of hate while only pretending to love. Slaves had the option of leaving their master after a certain amount of time had passed. They had the choice to leaving or they could stay with their master for life. This was a lifelong choice. There was no going back. There was no leaving this state of constant servitude should they change their minds down the road. A bondservant would stay with their master if they truly loved their life and their master took care of them. Mary is described as a bondservant of the Lord. She did not hate God while only pretending to love Him. She truly loved Him and was glad to be a servant to Him for the rest of her life. In this way, we give glory to God and He works through us when and how He chooses. Witness unconditionally and let God decide who He calls according to Romans 9.